1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system and a method for reporting and tracking one or more parameters such as time or sales, or for placing orders, etc., especially where the person or organization that creates the report or order is remote from the person or organization that is to receive and process the report or order.
2. Description of the Related Art
Much of one's work life is tracked and measured. Time cards, time sheets, time clocks and time-tracking software, for example, are features of the modern workplace that are seemingly as unavoidable as the hierarchies that require them. Consequently, following a routine repeated daily by millions in almost every industrialized country, those whose time is to be reported complete a report such as some type of card or sheet or physical or on-screen form. The report is then passed to one or more other people, such as a payroll or billing clerk, a project manager, etc. The data on the report is then usually entered manually into some type of bookkeeping or similar tracking software.
This conventional process is, however, as rife with possibilities for error as it is widespread. For example, every time someone must enter information, be it numerical or textual or both, manually onto paper, there is the possibility of error, since someone else will usually later have to read and interpret what has been written. The likelihood of error is often lessened when using time cards that are punched by machine, but even then the chance of error is not eliminated, because as soon as the data on the card is entered manually into a tracking system, there is a risk of misinterpretation or simply just typing errors. Moreover, even if everyone in the chain of reporting were infallible, the process itself contains an unavoidable inefficiency whenever reported data must be reentered into a tracking system—the very need for data reentry requires both time and an employee to do the reentry.
One way to reduce the need for data reentry would of course be to have the employee enter data himself into the tracking system. The disadvantages of this are, however, plain. First, the employee may not be comfortable with or competent in using the time-tracking software, especially if the software is based on a web browser. Second, even assuming that every reporting employee has convenient access to a suitable computer terminal, it would be wasteful to load multiple copies of the time-tracking software into each terminal.
Because the modern world is full of reports and orders, the problems identified above in the context of reporting time arise in other contexts as well, where other parameters than time must be reported instead of, or in addition to, time. For example, employees must often file expense and travel reports, or sales reports.
Moreover, parameters such as time and expenses are not the only types of information that frequently need to be reported. Employees or affiliates may need to file reports concerning the progress of projects, or the status of inventory, for example, or vendors may wish to send bills quickly in order to speed up the payment process.
Furthermore, similar problems occur even in contexts where the one reporting information is not in any way associated with the recipient of the report. This will often occur in the case of processing of customer orders. As is well known, one option offered by today's technology is on-line ordering via the Internet. However, not all companies have, or wish to have, a web site, and not all potential customers are comfortable with the thought of placing orders over such an insecure channel. Moreover, high-tech, on-line ordering and order processing are not always appropriate. For example, it would in most cases be too time-consuming and tedious to expect several co-workers in an office to have to go on-line and fill in browser-based forms simply to place advanced orders for lunch at one of their favorite restaurants.
Forms are also ubiquitous in many other areas of modern life, both professional and personal. Insurance forms, application forms, medical forms, order forms, tax forms—the list at times seems endless. Many such forms require a physical signature, or some other marking or entry that the user (applicant, etc.) must add manually. One way to submit such a form is for the user to obtain a paper copy, fill it in, then send it to the organization that processes it. Alternatively, the user can fill in the form partially on-line, then print it out and sign it, then mail it in. As yet another alternative, the recipient organization can send the user a partially (or fully) completed form, which the end user can complete, sign (for example) and return.
Once such a form is returned to the processing entity, not only is the problem of fault-prone manual data entry usually present, but many errors are also made in simple routing of the form to the correct processing department, and, once there, errors are often made in indexing the received form, that is, in entering it in the appropriate place in a storage system, data base, etc. For example, even when a practitioner completes a USPTO-designed form on the Patent Office's own web site, prints it out, signs it, and mails it to the USPTO, it still happens that the form is incorrectly routed or lost, even when the form has the correct application serial number and even customer number—that almost every submission to the USPTO is accompanied by a return-receipt confirmation postcard is witness to this problem, which is common in all large organizations that handle exceptionally large amounts of paper submissions. People are human, and make mistakes.
Three form-processing scenarios recur frequently in businesses or functions such as insurance, law accounting, banking, credit checking, government agencies, medical, human resources, sales, etc.:
Forms are filled out on-line, for example, via the Internet, and are then downloaded and printed, signed and faxed for processing. All the electronic data that was originally put into the web application is not saved and the data is entered manually after it is received for faxing.
Forms are filled out in-house on a proprietary system and are then printed and sent out for signatures. Insurance companies frequently follow this scenario. When the document is returned signed, it is manually scanned and indexed for storage and manually routed for business processes such as accounting.
Forms are filled out by one entity, printed and signed and faxed to another entity and then keyed into the receiving entity's database, so electronic data becomes paper and then has to be re-keyed to become electronic.
What is needed is therefore a system for reporting or submitting information such as time worked, expenses, inventory, orders, applications, homework assignments, etc., that is easy to use, that does not require the user to have specialized technology available, that allows for easy verification, that eliminates the need for manual data reentry, and that is readily adaptable to many different reporting contexts. Additionally, the system should reduce the likelihood of errors in routing and indexing reported information, and speed up these processes. This invention provides such a system, and a related method of operation.